Snakes living the high-altitude life, and sending computing power to the edges of the internet

On this week’s show: How some snakes have adapted to the extremes of height and temperature on the Tibetan Plateau, and giving low-power sensors more processing power First up on the podcast, tough snakes reveal their secrets. Host Sarah Crespi talks with Staff Writer Liz Pennisi about how snakes have adapted to the harsh conditions of the Tibetan Plateau. Next on the show, Producer Meagan Cantwell talks about moving more computing power to the edges of the internet. She is joined by Alexander Sludds, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Research Lab for Electronics. They discuss a faster, more energy-efficient approach to give edge devices—such as low-power smart sensors or tiny aerial drones—the computing power of far larger machines. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. [Image: JUN-FENG GUO; Music: Jeffrey Cook] [alt: photo of a Tibetan hot-spring snake near a geothermal pool with podcast overlay symbol] Authors: Sarah Crespi; Liz Pennisi; Meagan Cantwell Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf3782 About the Science Podcast: https://www.science.org/content/page/about-science-podcast  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices